


Dragons and children

by Tikor



Series: Lunar oral history long before the wolf [3]
Category: Exalted
Genre: Fanfiction, Gen, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-28 06:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7628017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikor/pseuds/Tikor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The marked wolf explains the nature of fire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragons and children

**Author's Note:**

> [The story told](http://lytek.org/tikor/Dragons%20and%20Children.ogg)

When the moon begged the core of the world for aid, Gaia bid her Dragons to make children as the sun and the moon and the stars had. Those children of Dragons we call the Dragon-Blooded, and they call themselves the Princes of the Earth. In stories they are the fire at the center of the world and if you stray too near them, pups, they will burn you.

Unlike the children of the moon, us wolves of the pack, unlike the children of the sun, the golden men and women of the world, unlike the stars in the sky, foretold threads of the first five stars, the Dragon-Blooded were born, not made. Ten thousand Dragon-Blooded were the issue of ten thousand immaculate births from ten thousand mortal mothers. Being born themselves, birth is central to their nature. Thus they can pass their Exalted spark to their children. We can make a mixture of men and beasts, sure, and our children retain some of the power of Luna in their veins, but they are a shadow of us wolves. The Dragon-Blooded breed true, their daughters can shine just as bright and sometimes even eclipse their mothers.

Today, in this fallen age, it takes a roll of the bones to see if a Dragon's child will take the second breath. But in the First Age the children of each Dragon-Blooded pair held the Dragon's fire within them. They were a race above humanity, and they earned their place at the feet of the golden ones, the wolves and even the stars. In those days we worked together under the mad glare of the golden ones.

But that gleam in the Solar's eyes turned to war, as it ever does. There were no enemies to threaten Creation at that time, so they fought with each other like birds over carrion. Many of the Gaia's grandchildren marched to their deaths against their sisters on the order of the golden ones. It was a sad time for many, but the wolves of the world kept their eyes on the best way through bad times.

When the golden ones had slaughtered each other's armies the wolves thought that maybe they would stop the fighting and enjoy the world for the wonderful and ever-changing place it already was, not what it might be under their rule. Such was their folly, for the sun's children are like the Daystar, ever in motion. They must always burn what _is_ into what they think _must be_. With the few Dragon-Blooded they had at their command they bid them to rut with mortals. At first the rate of Dragon-Blooded births shot up like a deer over a fallen tree. But, as all things must, the deer came back to earth. 

After a some generations the Dragon-Blooded pairings with mortals produced few or no Dragon-Blooded for the golden ones' armies. Even some Dragon-Blooded pairings produced mortal offspring, much to the Dragon-Blooded's dismay. They knew they had desecrated the Dragons' blessings, but saw no way to reverse the curse they had brought upon their heads by incestuously mating with their own mothers. They had forever thinned their father's blood. 

As wars do, the fighting between the golden ones ended when the will to fight finally left them. The golden ones, the wolves and the stars were no worse for the wear. We turned our sights outward and expanded the walls of the world through the might of our magic. The circus could not stand before us in those days. We were united under the sun's rays.

But then the star visited the wolf and replaced the sun with the fire at the center of the world. After, the rain of fire came. Through those times and since, the Dragon-Blooded have been paying penance for the actions of their ancestors. On the Blessed Isle stand the monasteries of the Immaculate Order. There dwell many Dragon-Blooded with no sex on their scent. The weak ones, their blood muddied with mortal mothers, revere the Dragons themselves and emulate their ways with fists and feet. They have no family, no desire, and are prepared to die in battle against the Anathema, a word they use for the wolves and the golden ones of the world as well as the circus. Do not attempt to sway them with wagging tongues, for they are as unmovable as mountains and as swift as fire across the plains in their pursuit of all wolves. Find yourself more members of the pack before you stand in battle against the fire. 

This leaves the strong ones, whose line is comparatively pure, to breed the next generation. Those, young pups, have many desires and much family. They are easier to sway with the wind of your snouts especially if you have their kin in your claws. But if you sing the wrong tune and they draw their blades then you must flee. Do not fight them alone. For they are clad in Jade and pure in their connection to the Dragons, surrounded by their brothers and sisters and their mortals. Bring your own pack to battle, for they will be swift to bring theirs.

I know you won't listen to me, young pups. That is the way of pups. But those of you who live through singing your fur on the fire will grow into wolves and remember my words. Perhaps then you will not make the same mistake twice. 

This story has no ending, for the curse still follows the Dragons' children and even the strongest among them can mate on the most auspicious days in the most resplendent Manse only to produce a mortal child if the bones fall a certain way. However, there is a belief among Dragon-Blooded that one day when enough prayers have been said, when enough temples have been build, when enough incense has been burned, when enough blood has been purified, then on that day and all days after the Dragons' children will sprout as they once did when the wolf first walked alongside the golden woman. And who can say if they are wrong or right? No one has found the cycle of days as it will forever be.


End file.
